The ruins of great cities do not tell us everything about the people who built them.
ln these mud-walled streets a mystery 5000 years old still lingers.
The key to it may lie with the River lndus
a mystical silver serpent that rises in the Himalayas
and uncoils through an immense landscape.
People settled on its banks despite the floods.
They tamed the rivers and transformed desert into gardens.
But what do we really know about them?
A century of archaeological digs still hasn't solved the mystery.
This civilisation flourished for 500 years
then vanished into historical limbo.
But it left behind a sacred heritage -
water.
At the end of a hard day in 1920
Professor M.S. Vats gazed over the remains of Harappa
the key site in the lndus civilisation.
The light of the setting sun fell on walls, pavements, columns.
At the same time several hundred kilometres away.
Professor R.D. Banerjee was excavating the ruins of a gigantic city -
Mohenjo-Daro.
ln Europe, archaeologists reacted with astonishment or incredulity.
European scholars had always downplayed
the extent of early Asian civilisations.
Since then, no less than a thousand sites have been discovered
in a region covering a million square kilometres.
The lndus, born of the Himalayan snows and bounded by Pakistan and lndia
is 3000 kilometres long.
lts valley was home to a flourishing civilisation.
( BlRDS CHlRP )
For a long time, our image of this civilisation was blurred.
The first archaeologists thought they had discovered cities of children.
They unearthed toys, dice, whistles. marbles...
( CHlLDREN'S LAUGHTER )
The people seemed oblivious of death and war.
They appeared a carefree, happy population
the Arcadians of the lndus.
(Speaks French) ln the 19th century
lndia was regarded as the mother of civilisations
But the great civilisations could only be Middle Eastern, Egyptian.
Mortimer Wheeler, one of the great British archaeologists in lndia
called lndia "the Cinderella civilisation" because it was the last born.
Some even thought it a pale copy of Mesopotamian civilisations
before it was realised that it was in fact unique
When archaeologists started to dig
they found nothing resembling the Mesopotamian civilisations.
But they soon realised they were uncovering huge cities.
Some sites cover 200 to 300 hectares.
ln area, Mohenjo-Daro is probably the largest of all ancient cities.
Mohenjo-Daro lay on the banks of the lndus
in the Sind province of southern Pakistan.
2000 years before Christ
this land was settled by newcomers from the border regions of ancient Persia.
Today, it is desert.
But on this spot, they founded the largest city of the lndus civilisation
with 40000 people and an area of a square kilometre.
The streets reflect the genius of their builders.
The city layout is a model of ancient town planning.
Residential blocks are defined by long straight arteries crossing at right angles.
The main street is never less than 9 metres wide.
lt's easy to imagine it filled with colourful crowds.
lmagine the archaeologists' surprise when they discovered
that the entire city had a complex water-management system.
lt had 80 public toilets
ln the residential areas every house had a tiled bathroom
and its own well.
Sewers serviced the whole city
ln a unique system for a centre 4000 years old
drains for waste water gutters and water collectors
were dug in the main streets.
ln cul-de-sacs and smaller streets
waste water was poured into bottomless jars.
Some crossroads had brick containers for rubbish disposal.
The most spectacular discovery was made at the top of the city
On a huge brick platform
the last refuge from the devastating floods of the lndus
the people of Mohenjo-Daro built a great bath.
For their daily ablutions they came to this pool.
Round about it was a gallery with fountains.
The thousand cities of this civilisation
were scattered over a territory twice as large as France
One of them was on the island of Khadir Bet
Desertification has now made it a narrow strip in a sea of salt
The city was Dholavira
a junction for the trade routes crisscrossing the marshy region of Kutch.
The lndus builders mostly used brick -
unfired bricks for walls and fired bricks for foundations.
ln Dholavira, archaeologists also discovered monumental stone walls
15 metres high.
The walls testify to the mastery and science of their masons
who must already have been familiar with plumb-lines and water-levels.
Dholavira's carpenters used Himalayan cedar
in columns that fitted perfectly into the finely cut and polished stonework.
Here too, a complex water system serviced the city.
Water was used to clean the streets.
lt ran off into underground conduits. which carried it beyond the city walls.
Since it was discovered in 1989.
an entire city has gradually been unearthed
from sediment over 8 metres deep
But Dholavira has also been an endless source of questions
Archaeologists are particularly interested in the city's outskirts
For Professor R.S. Bisht and his team
Dholavira brought a fresh perspective
on the technological knowledge of the people of the lndus.
The dig showed that the city's builders had burrowed right to the bedrock.
As the archaeologists dug deeper and deeper
they uncovered strange structures like deep pits.
For a long time. they couldn't explain their purpose.
(Speaks English) Look at this. It's going deeper, deeper... We don't know how deep it is there.
You see, we have aIready gone down 8 metres from the surface.
And it's still going deeper.
The kind of rock cuts you've aIready seen here.
Was this structure part of a defence system?
Or perhaps an underground dwelling?
How were these walls built?
They were constructed with great care.
The stones fit exactly and the wall stands on solid rock
which also makes up the floor of the pit.
I'm standing in a Iong and deep reservoir
cut through the limestone rock.
In fact...
this is the first example of rock-cut architecture...
by the Harappans.
It is continuing further eastward on that side.
Further westward on that side.
We have aIready confirmed the western end of this reservoir
which lies 85 metres away further west.
Dholavira finally yielded up some of its secrets.
Professor Bisht believes that the city had 16 reservoirs all around it.
Thanks to his work. the city plan can be recreated after 5000 years.
Dholavira was surrounded by 250 000 cubic metres of precious water.
The city covered 48 hectares and had a population of 20 000.
ln its centre was a citadel with solid walls.
Another wall separated the upper part of the city from the lower.
The city had many gardens, warehouses and granaries.
Dholavira's wealth came from the wheat and barley trade
and its people soon turned to the nearby sea.
Even after the general plan of the city was recreated
it still took archaeologists some time
to work out how the reservoirs surrounding it were filled.
Drinking water has always been scarce in the Kutch marshes.
Today, the sea has retreated leaving behind a salty desert.
The remaining villages have just a few wells of brackish water.
And yet the people of the lndus survived in this hostile environment
5000 years ago, in a land alternately burnt by the sun and swept by floods
a civilisation grew up because it knew how to manage water.
Big rivers were vital to the growth of the lndus civilisation
as they are to all agrarian civilisations.
The rivers facilitate agriculture. which then feeds cities
where a new, non-peasant population appears,
a population of labourers and craftsmen.
ln the past, the lndus spread across a huge plain
which was cultivated
at the risk of one's fields disappearing every year.
Every year in July
the monsoon covers the Pakistani countryside in a blanket of rain.
That's when the lndus. swollen by the melting Himalayan snows
breaks its banks.
lt spreads everywhere, covering the earth with a coat of clay.
But the floods are not considered a calamity.
People welcome and respect them as a godsend.
Their properties are mainly out of reach of the rising waters.
How did the people of the lndus manage to tame the devastating floods
5000 years ago?
The archaeologists found the answer in the ground around Dholavira.
ln dry riverbeds, which become torrents during the monsoon.
they found traces of stone structures.
These were the remains of dams built to control the flow of water.
That was the answer!
The people of Dholavira changed the course of rivers
to fill gigantic reservoirs,
the largest of which was 79 metres long and more than 7 metres deep.
Nor was that all.
For the water to flow from one reservoir to another,
the architects had to use the natural incline of the terrain.
The upper city, into which the water flows initially
is situated 13 metres higher than the lower side.
That was how they retained the water.
Aqueducts carried it to the heart of the city.
The stored water also made it possible to irrigate the fields
for most of the year.
The plan of the city was entirely devised to collect the precious water.
Dholavira, mistress of the river, seemed to float on mirrors of silver.
The ruins of Dholavira are now silent,
The relentless heat splits the stone,
Water no longer flows in the streets.
And yet, a strange atmosphere surrounds the visitor.
For this city worshipped water more than any other.
The citadel, at the top of the city.
also had an ingenious system for collecting rainwater.
(THUNDER)
Gutters channelled rainwater into a large reservoir outside Dholavira.
For years, archaeologists pondered the question,
what distinction did the Dholavirans make between water from the rivers
and water from the sky?
For the people of Dholavira,
water was the fundamental element in their survival.
lts marriage with the earth made crops possible.
lts alliance with man allowed souls to be purified.
ln the heart of the citadel was a sacred place.
There, in the middle of a paved esplanade,
the Dholavirans had placed two tanks and a well,
whose mouths gaped toward the heavens.
But the men who dug them were thinking of the depths of the earth.
The archaeologists have discovered the place of worship.
lt was a well 4 metres in diameter and 20 metres deep.
Women came here to draw water.
The edge of the well still has the grooves
where the women drew up their waterskins with ropes.
For the people of Dholavira,
the purest water was that drawn from the depths of the earth.
The blessed liquid filled two small pools
in which worshippers performed their ablutions.
When descending these steps,
they were encountering the power of the earth, the universal mother,
and the purifying power of water.
Dholavira is no longer in the path of any river.
No splash or trickle disturbs the silence of the ruins.
Another mystery has long haunted this region.
Civilisation developed along the River lndus.
So why are most of the rediscovered cities
in the middle of inhospitable sand deserts?
Why do they dot desert valleys?
To answer these questions,
archaeologists point to an lndian folk song.
(SlNGlNG CONTlNUES)
The Ghaggar Hakra, a river long thought to be a mere legend,
once flowed through the Thar Desert.
The river has now disappeared, but not without trace.
(Speaks English) The stiII water is stagnating.
There is satellite imagery.
Secondly, the kind of earth we have here
is clearly a dried-up riverbed where we are standing.
Water from the past is still there Otherwise none would lie there.
lt's not a pond
it's part of the riverbed.
So this is clear evidence
4500 years ago, a powerful river flowed through this plain.
So the Ghaggar Hakra said to have risen high in the Himalayas
was not a myth after all.
While excavating some unusual earthworks
archaeologists discovered dikes that protected fields from flooding.
They found the same brick walls, the same system of water management,
the same dams...
Today, geologists have even found the water.
4000 years ago, a powerful earthquake changed the course of the river.
lt shifted further east, towards the Ganges basin.
But the groundwater artery was still there just a few metres beneath the surface.
From 1990, new wells were dug
and the precious water began to flow again
Over 4000 years after it disappeared
the Ghaggar Hakra resurfaced from the depths of the earth.
With it, a whole region came back to life.
Fields reappeared in the landscape and abandoned villages were repopulated.
Much time had passed
but the same methods of cultivating land and making it fertile were rediscovered.
Once again, water emerged as the mother of civilisation.
2000 years before Christ
fields of wheat and barley surrounded the cities
between the lndus and the Ghaggar Hakra.
Traces found on pottery show that cotton was cultivated.
The peasants also grew peas and sesame seeds.
They kept buffaloes and zebu cattle, sheep and goats.
A diverse, bountiful agriculture fed the cities and kept them prosperous.
Soon villages appeared in the most remote regions of the vast country.
Civilisation was spreading.
ln the walled cities, artisans were able to perfect their skills.
Every city had its craftsmen's quarter.
ldeas, methods and inventions spread together with trade.
ln the markets, in jewellers' workshops, scales and weights appeared.
The streets teemed with hardworking populations.
Stonemasons fashioned new tools such as jasper drills or polishing stones.
The city dwellers mastered the art of making ornaments from cornelian.
They made weapons mirrors and razors
and they excelled in woodwork.
Their ceramics reached every corner of the East.
They mastered the art of working copper and bronze.
Artists carved ivory
and set semi-precious stones in gold to make jewellery.
The level of production was such
that the civilisation seemed on the verge of an industrial era.
We have a fairly good idea of the strength of their economy.
The great cities of the lndus. especially Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa.
had well-developed crafts
that produced items only this civilisation could make
like particular types of near-industrial ceramics
not to mention all that's been lost.
The lndus civilisation must have produced a lot of textiles.
of food processed using the technologies of the time.
No traces remain of all that it s all disappeared.
But today, some of its products would qualify as industrial-quality
and they were widely exported from the Gulf to Mesopotamia.
With their first trading journeys.
the people of the lndus took care to mark their products
with clay stamps or copper plates.
But their favourite method was seals made of steatite
a material that hardens when heated.
Merchants hung them around their necks and they were widely used.
The development of long-distance trade led the lndus merchants to forge alliances
and to invent the concept of the contract.
To seal a contract they used finely carved stone cylinders
similar to those in Mesopotamia.
More than 2000 of these seals have been found.
They're carved with animal profiles - zebu, buffalo, crocodiles -
or with more intricate and mysterious motifs.
lnscriptions accompany the images.
Archaeologists have identified over 400 recurring signs.
One problem with the lndus civilisation
is that its people wrote
We know that
we have thousands of documents
But they wrote on perishable media
so we don t have their writings
only what we'd call street signs
signs on key rings
everything that remained solid
while the other media disappeared.
So we don t know. We have no texts.
So we saw a civilisation emerge that had writing
but we thought it was just for magic rituals
when in fact it probably had a political and administrative system
like Egypt and Mesopotamia.
Clearly, so long as we can't decipher the writing
which means finding a text that is long enough
to decipher with the classic techniques
we won t even know what language they spoke.
ln 1999, a wave of excitement ran through the Dholavira site.
At the foot of the northern entrance
the archaeological team had made a discovery.
Their brushes uncovered what looked like an inscription.
After several minutes of careful work symbols finally emerged.
All the workers gathered to watch. Everyone held their breath.
lt could be an historic moment.
lf the text was long enough
the lndus script might finally be deciphered.
One after another the symbols were uncovered.
Made of inlaid quartz they were over 30 centimetres high.
Originally they were probably set in a wooden tablet
long since rotted away.
The team was on tenterhooks
to recover a message composed over 4000 years ago.
After several hours, the archaeologists had to accept the inevitable.
Once again, they had uncovered only a handful of signs.
The lndus script has yet to find its Rosetta Stone.
What do these signs mean?
What do they tell us about the structure of a civilisation that, for a long time,
was thought to be ruled by a single man, the priest-king?
I think this is the oIdest signboard in the worId.
Going back to Harappan times.
WhiIe excavating we found...
a wooden frame all around it.
And those letters must have been pasted or laid in that wooden board.
I don't think this is the rightful place for this inscription to lie here.
I beIieve it shouId have been supported on the facade of this majestic north gate.
I don't think we should broaden the concept of priest-king.
One doesn't know.
But the kind of situation we see here...
We see that...
We think the Harappan Empire was not ruled by one person.
It was an economic empire. It was a cultural empire.
We envisage there were several rulers.
Some were mightier than the rest.
One might have been the mightiest, who knows?
There were several kings severaI princelings.
ruling over larger and smaller kingdoms.
(EXPLOSlON)
Will these nine stone figures keep their secret forever?
Did the northern entrance of the Dholavira citadel
bear the name of the sovereign who ruled the region?
Some experts think so.
But others, pointing to the wheels in the inscription,
think it represents the first example of a traffic sign
put up at the entrance of a city.
The archaeologists can only dream.
Perhaps, somewhere, the miraculous treasure awaits them -
the find that will solve the mystery of a civilisation whose thought eludes us.
Did it have poets and writers?
What were its legends?
What was its concept of the world?
Without these texts, we will never really understand this civilisation...
which soon set its eyes on faraway lands.
4000 years ago.
the people of the lndus set out to find the mineral resources they lacked.
They needed copper, tin, silver and lapis lazuli.
Their caravans took the road west towards Baluchistan and today's lran.
They founded colonies over 1500 kilometres from their homeland
on the borders of Afghanistan.
Soon they were looking beyond the Kutch marshes and the lndus delta.
Beyond were lands that attracted them,
lands where they could establish harbours.
A strategy of exchange and trade was taking shape.
Up until then, the people of the lndus valley had only been boatmen.
Their craft went up and down the rivers
carrying passengers and goods over hundreds of kilometres.
These small craft live on in Pakistan.
Flat-bottomed boats suited for shallow waters still ply the rivers.
Their design has hardly changed in 4000 years.
Cautiously, the first navigators followed the shores of the Sea of Oman westward.
Sea transport soon proved its value.
lt was faster than the long and vulnerable overland routes
and, above all, boats carried far more cargo.
But where were the merchant vessels making for?
The maritime trade of the lndus civilisation
has been studied over the past 20 years or so.
We knew the rivers were used for trade between the lndus cities.
lts maritime trade is more tricky.
We know that items from the lndus reached the Oman peninsula.
that is, today's United Arab Emirates and Oman
as well as Bahrain and Mesopotamia.
More than that we have Mesopotamian texts
a text by Sargon of Akkad from around 2300 BC
saying that in his harbour were ships from Dilmun
which is the Kuwait-Qatar region centred on Bahrain...
boats from Magan today's Oman peninsula
and from Meluhha the land of the lndus.
lt was probably a multilateral trade
involving people from the whole region.
lt seems that the first people to take to the sea
were not people from the lndus.
We must bear in mind that today's lndus delta
is subject to huge tides.
lt's extremely difficult to navigate.
And its sea coast is also very difficult to navigate.
But at some stage everyone took to the sea
And at that time
in the middle of the third millennium BC
a time of increased international trade
like the trade in jewellery
for example large carnelian beads
which only people from the lndus knew how to make.
But also the trade in fabrics including precious fabrics
produced and exchanged in both the lndus and Mesopotamia.
And also all sorts of goods that came from afar
like combs made of ivory and all sorts of other items
from as far as the jungles of the Ganges valley.
A fabulous odyssey began
The first navigators sailed toward the unknown, and discovered...
the world.
Sailing from Harappa. Mohenjo-Daro or Dholavira.
the boats reached the Oman peninsula.
Then, via the Strait of Hormuz
they sailed the Persian Gulf all the way to faraway Mesopotamia
3500 kilometres from the lndus valley.
Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates
at the entrance of the Persian Gulf.
Today it is a bustling commercial port
where fishing boats jostle with freighters and tankers.
lt was here that the merchants from the lndus landed.
With their totally different culture and language
how did they make their first contact?
How did these people communicate?
A Sumerian text from Mesopotamia around 2000 BC
mentions a translator from Meluhha
who spoke the languages of the lndus and Sumeria.
Pity he didn't leave a dictionary!
But we must imagine that this whole ancient world
where people constantly exchanged things
was multilingual.
lt's in our world
that people now speak a single language plus English.
ln that ancient world
a language was often spoken by just a few thousand people.
The neighbouring group spoke a different language.
So all these people had to be able to communicate.
The island of Umm al-Nar.
The influence of its civilisation spread far and wide over the Arabian desert.
lts royal tombs tell the story.
ln them, archaeologists have discovered cornelian ornaments
and ceramics typical of the lndus valley.
(Man speaks English) This hole or this burial goes back to some time
between 2300 and 2000 BC.
So the material, anyway, mainly the pottery, is under study.
but so far we have identified at least, I can say
10% of the whole collection that was imported from outside
mainIy from the Indus and BaIuchistan.
Even further off well inside the Persian Gulf
archaeologists are combing the island of Bahrain
for proof of a cultural marriage between the lndus and Mesopotamia.
lt's a huge task.
They have identified a thousand tombs scattered across 695 square kilometres.
ln this burial complex, Dr Alsendi is looking for the great prize
a text that would allow scholars to translate the inscriptions
of the lndus civilisation.
ln the world of archaeology, that would have the same impact
as Jean-Fran?ois Champollion's deciphering of Egyptian hieroglyphs
in the 1820s.
(Speaks English) I hope that one day maybe we will find in one grave
two inscriptions together. Indus valley and Mesopotamia.
and we can find... we solve the probIem in one grave and burial.
This is... we hope that.
And... don't forget that Bahrain here
we have thousands and thousands of burial mounds.
And as there is two nations, two cultures Mesopotamia, Indus valley
coming and sit together here for a Iong time
we beIieve, we beIieve...
that one day we will find them.
History teaches that even the greatest civilisations are destined to disappear.
The lndus civilisation was no exception.
From 1800 BC onward, it was no longer mentioned in Mesopotamian tablets.
Little by little, the streets of its cities emptied of people.
The craftsmen's quarters no longer rang to the sound of tools.
The buildings and irrigation systems were left to crumble.
The great cities were ravaged by time and the elements.
How can we explain this sudden decay?
Theories abound
Some experts think the empire succumbed to invaders from Central Asia.
Others suggest that it was devastated by floods or earthquakes.
What cataclysm brought about the end of these magnificent cities?
And where did their people go?
Did they die? Did they flee?
Did the disappearance of the Ghaggar Hakra River
force irreversible changes to their way of life?
We have no texts to shed light on all this
and we know too little of how the lndus administration worked
to be able to pin down the causes of their decline.
And can we really speak of a decline?
What do we know of the world that succeeded the lndus civilisation?
How did the lndus civilisation vanish?
First, it didn't suddenly disappear.
What we know is that from a certain date
that can be established at around 2000 BC
something we call "regionalisation" occurred.
This vast cultural unity was replaced by regional entities
that lasted quite a while.
The large cities were abandoned. that's certain.
That happens quite often.
And the reason the large cities are abandoned
is that the way society functions
can no longer support them economically.
But that doesn't mean the people just left.
lt means they started to live differently
in a manner less visible to archaeology.
The problem is archaeologists can't see everything.
The empire literally fell apart.
The fertile lands around Harappa. Mohenjo-Daro or Dholavira
formed independent states.
New crops appeared
and the peasants began to raise horses, camels and donkeys.
Gradually, what had been one people adopted a variety of cultures.
And yet, some have preserved a part of this heritage.
Adalaj, a temple in the heart of lndia.
At the foot of these steps carved in the rock in the 16th century
there's a large well.
lt's a passage between two worlds -
between the entrails of the earth and the heavens.
(OBJECT SPLASHES lNTO WATER)
Thousands of worshippers still come here
to gaze at the smooth surface of this water.
lt's thought to be the purest water of all.
The elusive civilisation of the lndus was a brilliant chapter in the human story.
Today, the banks of the Ganges ring with the calls of the faithful
heirs to a long tradition.
(Prays)
That is the legacy.
lt was passed on to medieval and modern lndia
and it reaches us seemingly unchanged.
These gestures, these chants, seem to have crossed the centuries.
Watching the rituals of the lndian faithful
worshipping a benevolent god in the River Ganges
we see the faces of the people of the lndus.
A people who, to build their empire, became the masters of the river.